


Polyergus Formicidae

by Baknami



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012)
Genre: "Episode", Action, Adventure, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-13 00:15:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5687191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baknami/pseuds/Baknami
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's a formicidae mating ritual.  When the temperature, wind and humidity are just right, the breeders soar into the air and float on the breeze to search for a new location to burrow into the pliable soil and form a brand new-"</p>
<p>"English, Donnie!"</p>
<p>(A "Lost Episode" that takes place during Season Two.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> During Christmas break, my sister got me to try 2012. I had always wanted to try it out; Donatello is voiced by *Rob Paulsen*, after all.
> 
> Given that I finished up an entire fic in the space of two weeks, I would say that she did a fine job in getting me interested in it.
> 
> Hopefully this "episode" will be enjoyable to you guys! Please read on!

The city of New York was usually loud and rambunctious, and today was no exception. People were hawking and shouting across the streets amongst each other as cars remained caught in traffic due to double parked cars. Everything seemed normal on the streets of the city, but underground, in the sewers, there was a life that most people hadn't seen or even dreamed of before. Down below, charging through the sewers of New York City, were four large, humanoid, mutant freshwater turtles.

The turtle in red, Raphael, charged on ahead, leaping across a fifteen foot gap from one pipe to the next. He barely spent a moment to look back and catch a glimpse of his brother, the turtle in blue, Leonardo. He glanced at Raphael and leaped across the chasm, causing the turtle in red to caw in delight and rush on ahead. “You gotta get faster if you wanna keep up with me, bro!”

“The important part is not who is fastest, Raph!” Leonardo chastised.

“Yeah, says the *loser*!” Raphael replied happily, mimicking a frog more than a turtle as he leaped another twenty feet and barely had a problem landing safely inside a giant pipe as they continued their romp.

The two turtles were followed by their younger brothers, Donatello wore a purple headband and was flanked by the youngest, the orange turtle Michelangelo. “Yo Dee! How much further is this 'training romp' supposed to be? I can hear my stomach growling something fierce!”

“Well...” Donatello began, using his bo as leverage to clear a gap that much more gracefully before shouldering it and turning a corner, “Leo and I were planning on a quick ten mile circle before heading back to the station and then...”

“Ten miles!? And you didn't think to tell us that beforehand so I could get some pizza in me!?” Michelangelo cried, sliding across the sewage after his brother.

“Come on, Mikey, we need to keep ourselves in top shape, and whining about food in the middle of a stakeout is the last thing we need.” As their father, the mutant rat Master Splinter, always said, patience is key!

Michelangelo groaned as Donatello began whistling through his tooth gap to keep himself occupied. The two were about to round another corner when they heard their two brothers start to shout in distress. Donatello immediately planted his feet in the sewage, stopping himself dead. Michelangelo, on the other hand, slid along past his brother with a gasp. “Yo! I think Leo and Raph are in trouble!”

“Could it be the Foot?” Donatello wondered aloud. Sometimes their arch-rival, the evil Shredder, sent a few of his Foot-Bots into the sewers for recon, and it really wasn't ethical to leave traps for them, especially when normal sewer cleaners might stumble into them. Both Michelangelo and Donatello rushed to catch up with their brothers, but when they encountered Leonardo and Raphael, the two teenagers stared in disbelief.

“Get them off, Get them off!” Raphael shouted, flailing around with a shout.

“They're everywhere!” Leonardo roared, clawing at his shell and screaming.

Michelangelo grabbed at his head and shook it in disbelief. “It's the bugocalypse, dudes! We're doomed, doomed!”

“They're just some ants, you guys...” Donatello murmured through a chuckle, watching as the fluttering ants flit about the sewer. He smiled softly, amazed and amused at his brothers screaming, “I've never actually seen a colony flight before!”

“Donnie, get these things off of us!!” Raphael demanded as Donatello hopped backwards to avoid a small cloud of flying ants head down the pipes.

“Is there a breeze in here...?” Donatello spoke to himself, sticking his finger in his mouth to check the air, “Well, what do you know! Someone must have left a manhole open, it made a wind tunnel!”

Donatello watched as his three brothers tore out of the pipe with a shout, and the last teenager jogged after them with a chuckle as they shook out their elbow pads, heads, and shells. “What even was that!?” Michelangelo asked, still flailing about, “I can still feel them crawling all over me!”

“It's a formicidae mating ritual,” Donatello explained, pantomiming everything during his explanation, “When the temperature, wind and humidity are just right, the breeder ants soar into the air and float on the breeze to search for a new location to burrow into the pliable soil and form a brand new colony! It's absolutely fascinating to see, and...”

“Donnie!!” Raphael shouted angrily. He would have swatted at his brother if he wasn't debating rolling around in the sewage just to get the bugs off of him, “In English!! Was that some weird Kraang plot or what?”

Donatello let out a good-natured chuckle as he reached out to flick a pair of ants off of Leonardo. The two winged ants were stuck together and fought desperately to stay aloft as they began falling into the muck. “No, no, that's completely natural. They're flying around to create new colonies. That's why they're uhm...” Leonardo stared, wide eyed, at Donatello as it slowly began to sink in.

“We were trapped in a giant ant orgy!?”

“Well, technically, the ants aren't giant.”

Raphael let out a horrified scream, “I think I swallowed one!! OR TWO!”

“Shoulda kept your mouth closed, dude!” Michelangelo insisted, scratching at the folds near his shell. Raphael managed to smack his little brother all while shivering from the crawling sensation still present on his skin.

“L-let's just head back, everyone,” Leonardo muttered, rubbing at his arms and trying not to shudder, “Before the wind starts blowing this way, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Cue Opening Theme*
> 
> Why ants? Well, if I didn't become a teacher, I might have been an entymologist. I love bugs of all shapes and sizes, and the ones that do crazy or amazing things are even more fun to play with. As much as I'd love to play with a spider mutant, that's already been done. But ants! Ohhhhh man. I have some really fun ideas for ants. Heeheeheeeee...
> 
> PS: The "Patience is Key" that Donnie mentions comes from a Japanese proverb. The "Patience/Endurance" is the same Kanji as the "Nin" in Ninja.


	2. Pizza Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The brothers return home to try to find a way to get rid of the icky feeling of bugs, and a friend makes a visit with a peace offering. It's pizza, in case anyone *really* needs to ask.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mikey makes a few really fun references in here, can you find them all!?

Back at the lab, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo immediately began searching the area to scrub down their skin. Raphael found a nylon scrubber, designed to remove rust, and scraped off a couple of layers of skin while Leonardo preferred to meditate in the pools, hoping to remove the goosebumps though pure will.

Michelangelo, on the other hand, slid into Donatello's lab and did a little dance. “Donnie, my shell still itches! Don't you have some sort of turtle wax or something...?”

“Not now, Mikey, I'm busy,” Donatello replied, goggles applied and fingers completely still as he worked with his beakers, “I don't really enjoy getting samples of April's DNA, and I'd rather not waste another canister of mutagen messing up this batch.” April had already forgiven the four for their horribly royal mistake of spilling canisters of mutagen all over New York City, but if he was ever going to get her to smile again, for real, he needed to find a way to reverse the mutation that plagued her father.

Michelangelo had other things on his mind. He was itchy and Donatello must have had something on him! He practically rolled around on the worktable with a groan, searching around for an anti-itch cream of some sort. Donatello, meanwhile, let out a shout. “Mikey! Leave that alone! What are you doing!?”

“Come on, there's gotta be something... I can't stand all this itching! It's like something's still in my shell!”

“I guess that would be really awkward,” Donatello admitted, pulling up his goggles. “Here, lemme check you out, okay?”

It was then that Leonardo poked his head into the lab. “Hey, is anyone hungry? April came by with a couple of pizzas from Antonio's.”

“Pizzas!?” Michelangelo shouted, jumping up. As he did, a tiny black dot bounced out of his shell and onto the table.

“April!?” Donatello let out a whoop, tossed his goggles aside, and was out in a flash. Leonardo snorted and dodged aside so he wouldn't get bowled over before poking his head back to look at Michelangelo. “I gotta make sure he doesn't commit social suicide. You should come soon.”

“You don't have to tell me twice!” Michelangelo replied, jogging up to his brother. The two left the laboratory, not realizing that the black dot was regaining its bearings. The little ant spent some woozy moments to clean her wings and antennae before attempting to fly. However, the doors were closed and there were no drafts, so she could only manage zipping around for a few seconds before becoming earthbound once more. She had to find some nice dirt and some nice food, quickly, or she wouldn't make it.

Luckily for her, there was a beaker of mutagen that she could easily land on. She was light enough that when she flew onto the goop, she managed to stay afloat just long enough to begin to drink...

\---

There really was nothing like watching anime with your brothers and best friend while eating pizza, and Michelangelo made sure to remind everyone just how awesome it was. “It's like if a group of guys blew up a giant meteor by shouting at it really hard!!”

Raphael would have smacked his brother if he wasn't too full to move, so instead he tossed a crumpled napkin at his head. “Mikey, could you cram it for like, two seconds?”

Leonardo wiped his hands of grease and bowed his head, “Gochisousama, thanks April, it was delicious.”

“Next time though, get them to put jelly beans on it!”

Donatello let out an exasperated sigh, “Mikey, if you want jelly beans on it so bad, you can put them on yourself.”

“But then it's not baked into the cheese, and that's the way to make it perfect!” Michelangelo insisted, making April chuckle under her breath.

“It's not on the menu, but I'll see if they'll make an exception for you next time Mikey.” the teenager said. Michelangelo gave her a grateful smile that made Donatello cough into his hand.

“Yes well, it's getting pretty late, isn't it? Why don't one of us (you can stop looking at me that way Leo) walk her ho-” The friends were interrupted by a sudden crash that came from Donatello's lab, and the young genius already jumped up to check on the sound.

“Yo Donnie, what have you been working on!?” Raphael shouted, semi-reluctantly getting up (he sorely hoped it was something he could beat up, after all).

“Nothing! Just some retro-mutagen!” Donatello replied, opening the door to his lab and freezing when he saw the garage door. Something had forced it up, and it made a large enough hole for a relatively small human to squeeze under. Did someone sneak inside!? He began searching the entire lab while the others filed in to check on everything.

“Everything looks fine...” Leonardo stated matter-of-factually as Donatello took inventory, “There isn't even a mess. What could have made that crashing sound...?”

“The door's open,” Raphael muttered angrily, shoving it open and looking around outside, “Did someone escape?”

“More like some **thing** ,” Michelangelo said, wiggling his fingers and imitating a spooky theme, “You never know what Donnie's cooking up in his little shop of horrors.”

“Yes you do!” Donatello insisted, whipping around to face his brother, “You come in here every day and mess everything up! You always know what I'm doing in here!”

Leonardo was instantly between the two to calm the rising tension, “Regardless, if there's nothing in here, then whatever it is must be outside. We should check around. Donnie, you stay here and see if anything was taken.” He then turned to look at April, whose eyes already began shining at the prospect of another adventure. “You don't have to come if it's too late for you, Apri-”

“Oh no, you're not getting rid of me that easily! It's up to all of us to make sure no one messes with Donnie's lab!” She knew, after all, that even though she was still *very much* annoyed at the whole “my dad's a horrible mutant bat because some moronic teenage boys couldn't exercise a little gosh darn caution”, Donatello was still the only one who could get her father back to normal.

“Alright then, we should split up,” Leonardo said, motioning for April and Michelangelo to follow him out of the lab, leaving an almost dejected purple brother behind. “Raph, you take Mikey down to the old side of town, and April and I will head north.”

“Of course,” Raphael muttered under his breath. Donnie wasn't with them so *he* had to get saddled with the brother who couldn't even pretend to keep his thoughts in one place. “Come on, Mikey, let's go monster hunting.”

“OooooWeeeeeOoooo!” Michelangelo replied, wiggling his fingers again as he jogged to catch up with his brother.

“We should get this finished up soon though,” April said as she rushed to keep up with Leonardo's fast pace, “I have a really bad feeling about this whole thing...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My sister nodded sagely when giving this a once over, because it's totally true, every episode in Season 2 is about Donnie exercising the *worst* lab safety and just getting everyone horribly mutated. It became such a thing that the "Donnie, no!"s actually beat out the "Mikey, no!"s in Season 2.
> 
> Seriously you don't even make the HUMANS wear gloves in your lab, Donnie, and only you wear goggles? My father the metallurgist is just giving you the most disappointed look right now.
> 
> TL;DR, 95% of every problem in this show is somehow related to Donnie being really bad at being a genius, I mean seriously.


	3. Polyergus Formicidae

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raphael and Michelangelo find the problem, Donatello identifies the problem, and Leonardo... well, he can look pretty, right?

Michelangelo and Raphael had been scouting for a good fifteen minutes before one of them couldn't take it anymore. “Leo better have found this thing because this is ridiculous! Where the heck could it even be?”

“I dunno man, we don't even know what it was. It just had to be big, right? Otherwise it couldn't have made that big WHAM!!” Michelangelo slammed a fist against the pipe to make a point, and Raphael jumped at the reverberations it made. “Ya know?”

“Oh, I know alright,” Raphael muttered, shoving on his brother with a growl. “Now come on, before it gets even further awa-”

“Hey Raph, wait, you hear that?” Michelangelo looked around, eyebrows furrowed in concentration. “It sounds like someone...”

_Help me... Please..._

Raphael twirled his sai and narrowed his eyes, on full alert, “...Calling for help! Come on, Mikey. Ninja mode on, you hear me!?”

“Don't gotta tell me twice, bro!” Raphael sorely doubted that, but he didn't say anything as they rushed down a different path. They didn't go far when they suddenly had to stop and jump into the shadows as a small group of children wandered aimlessly down the same tunnel. “What in the world? What are these kids doing down here...?”

“Something tells me they aren't taking a tour...” Michelangelo whispered back to his brother. “They're heading down the tunnel where that lady was calling from.”

Raphael's eyes were like slits, “How in the world could they hear her? I really doubt they were just wandering around down here beforehand...” Suddenly a chill ran down his spine, and he tapped his sai against the pipe to get his brother's attention, “Mikey, did we really *hear* that...?”

“Huh? What are you talkin' 'bout? Of course I heard...”

_Help me... Please... I'm so scared..._

Michelangelo's jaw dropped. “We heard it...”

The boys whispered in unison: “...in our minds!”

Raphael growled, “Just what we need.”

“Mannnn, She's psycho too...?” Michelangelo whined, shadowing the children quietly as they were lured by the psychic call. Raphael sneered but didn't say anything as the children neared the end of the tunnel and paused before a large, shadowy figure. 

Raphael took some time to check his surroundings. They were in a large pipe that ended just a few feet before them. It was depositing its waste into a larger room from high above; it was a twenty foot drop from the pipe they were in, so it was something that the turtles would have to keep in mind if they were caught fighting near the children. For now, it was best to see what they were up against, so Raphael peered closely to see any features on the creature that was silhouetted by the light.

_ You came... Please help... I don't know what to do... It hurts... _ The creature took a step forward, and Raphael fought to keep from gagging vocally when the mutated queen ant crawled feebly on all of her six freckled human hands, and she looked up pleadingly with her bright blue human eyes as she snapped her mandibles. Her thorax writhed each time she moved her mutated hands, and her abdomen twitched as another egg was expelled from her body.

Any person in their right mind would have recoiled or ran in horror, but the children looked down at the teary queen and proceeded to nurse her, reaching out to keep her steady while others went to tend to her eggs. They were acting just like good ant drones might do, and that creeped out the turtles more than anything else.

Raphael looked at Michelangelo, and the two nodded at each other. In unison, the two leaped from their hiding places and twirled their respective weapons. “Whoev- wh-whatever you are, you let those children go right now!”

The ant queen looked up at the turtles in fear, and the children immediately moved to protect her as she wailed in their minds.  _ Help me! Save me! _

“Uhhh, Raph? What's the plan, dude?” Michelangelo asked. Raphael could hear it in the timbre of his brother's voice; he was hesitating. He really didn't want to have to fight, either because of the children, or perhaps the way the mutant was crying. Raphael didn't want to admit it, but he didn't think she was faking that fear. Most if not all of the mutants they had encountered were lost and confused, and this queen ant was no real exception...

That said, something *had* to be done about her; they couldn't just let her *keep* the kids! “We need Leo,” he replied, feeling dirty just for saying it. He took out his tPhone as Michelangelo backed him up.

\---

Leonardo had his entire being focused on the hunt, so April was the one to point out that his phone was vibrating. “You okay there, Leo?”

“I'm fine, April,” Just... preoccupied. It wasn't very often that he got the same premonitions that April did, but even he could tell something was off as he pulled up his phone and answered it. “Yo Raph, what's the story?”

“It's some mutated ant monster! I think it came from our run!” Raphael shouted into the receiver, “She's got some kids brainwashed or something, she can talk in our minds, and... Would you STOP doing that!?” It sounded like he was yelling at someone else, “My head doesn't need anyone else inside it, thank you very much!”

Leonardo whirled around and was off like a shot, “April and I are coming to back you up. We'll get Donnie on the phone too. Hang on until we can arrive!”

Raphael let out a snort. “Like usual. Just get your butt over here. Mikey's getting weird. ...Weird **er** .”

Leonardo replied with a hum and ended the call. “We need to catch up with Raph and Mikey. They found it. Some sort of ant mutant. We'll need Donnie, too.”

“I'll give him a call,” April said lightly, pressing the speed dial with practiced precision...

...It was answered before the first ring finished. “April!? What is it!?” Donatello asked quickly.

“Donnie, we've found it. It's at Raph's location. Can you meet us there?”

“Absolutely! And April, I think I might know what's going on with the...” April ended the call; she needed to keep her focus if she wanted to keep up with Leonardo.

\---

Raphael and Michelangelo, meanwhile, were having a troublesome time; the queen let out a scream when the angry turtle yelled at her, and in moments they were surrounded by giant mutant ants. Her eggs weren't spared the mutation either, and so each one was a hideous amalgamation of human and insect. Some even had reddish-orange hair sprouting from various parts of their bodies, and they crawled on random assortments of ant and human feet or sometimes hands. Michelangelo let out some freaky scream about comic books or something, and the two had to back off as the monsters dragged themselves forward, clasping their mandibles all while their queen cried and pleaded.

Raphael was just happy he had something he could take his aggression out on, and he had no problem with catching a mandible in his sai and snapping it in two like one would break a blade. Michelangelo, meanwhile, used his nunchaku to bat them away, but it quickly became clear that they were in over their heads when the ant queen let out another spine chilling scream, and the eggs she had just laid began to break open as the larvae pulled themselves out, fully grown in mere minutes from being laid. “The mutation must make them grow faster! We're gunna be overrun in minutes!”

“Where're the others when you need them...?” Michelangelo asked, pulling back while twirling his nunchaku defensively.

Raphael hated to admit it, but they were really out of their league, and while the children were still in the queen's clutches, they didn't seem to be in any danger. “We're advancing to the rear! Let's go!”

“Doesn't that just mean running?” Michelangelo asked as they turned and rushed off.

“I *never* run!” He replied venomously, growling in rage at the indignity of it all. “We're just getting Don; he'll know whatever mutagen that thing ate and we can get back in the battle!” Easy pease!

Thankfully, the group's tPhones were set up to track each other, and it only took a few minutes before Raphael and Michelangelo caught up with Leonardo and April. Well, more like the other way around. “Raph! What's going on?”

“She's psychic, Leo! She's calling the children of the city, they're acting like some sorta ant drones! We can't even get to them; they'll just take any blow we give to her!”

“Drones...? How could they do that?” Leonardo asked, “She's kidnapping *humans*!”

“It makes complete sense,” Donatello said suddenly, approaching from the rear. He was poking his face into someodd gadget before he looked at his brothers, “Those flying ants were Polyergus, species: Lucidus. Obviously native to New England, due to the fact that we're currently residing in...”

“English, Donnie!”

“They're Slaver Ants, Leo.” Donatello shook his head. “Their mandibles actually cannot carry and hold their own eggs or food properly, so they have a specific host species to steal children from so they can become drones. All of a queen's children are soldier ants.” The young genius gulped and began looking at the information he accrued, “And, well... the mutagen she drank had some of April's DNA in it, so therefore...”

“She became Aprant!?” Michelangelo cried, making April gag. She gave Donatello a look that caused the poor turtle to turn red in embarrassment.

“So uhm, I guess from April's DNA... That...” Donatello looked at Michelangelo, who grinned widely and clasped his hands together with a silent plea. The young genius groaned, “...Aprant... became linked to humankind. I assume they're her host species. If this keeps up, she'll have an entire swarm of human children caring for her brood; they might even grow up completely under her control!”

“So we take her out, then!” Raphael shouted, pounding his fists together with a hiss, “Otherwise she'll take over all of New York!”

“But...” Michelangelo began, looking worried. The others turned to him, and he shrugged a little in response, “Do we have to 'take her out'? You know... I bet she's just scared and tired... she doesn't want to hurt anyone... can't we just...?” He stopped when he looked at Donatello's pitying face, and he looked at Leonardo. “Wh-what...?”

Leonardo picked up on his brother's innuendo. He glanced at Donatello before turning back to their little brother. “Mikey, I-I don't think you're thinking this through all too clearly. Remember, *we're* human too, in a weird way. If she's picking up human children and brainwashing them... there's a good chance she's getting to you, too.”

“We're going to have to be very careful, Mikey,” Donatello explained, making sure that Michelangelo wouldn't have to wonder what they were implying, “The longer we hear her voice in our head, the larger chance that we'll be turned into her drones.”

“But not me, right?” April asked, walking forward and looking at Donatello, “I mean, if I'm as psychic as her, if not moreso, I shouldn't be affected by her brainwashing.”

Leonardo frowned in reply, his eyebrows knit in determination, “We're not letting you go alone, if that's what you're implying.”

Raphael shoved his way up front, “Come on, you dorks. If we all stick together, it shouldn't be much of a problem!” He insisted, arms crossed in annoyance. “Those eggs get fully grown in minutes; the longer we take, the more of them there are to take out!”

“What!?” The group shouted in unison, caught completely off guard.

“And you didn't think to tell us that ahead of time!?” Donatello cried before turning to their leader, “Leo, we have to go now!”

“Right, ninjas and kunoichi, let's do this!” Leonardo ordered, pumping his fist. In a flash, the group rushed down into the sewers, towards their next great battle.


	4. Ant Attack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Action! Adventure! Aprant! All these things and more!
> 
> Aprant seems to be affecting the boys the longer they take, so the only answer to that is to push forward and finish things as quickly as possible. But is that enough to keep everyone from being brainwashed...?

The five friends were as silent as possible while Michelangelo and Raphael led them down the tunnels towards the nesting grounds of Aprant, and they even managed to stay out of sight when a few human children passed by on their way towards the surface. “Aprant must be getting hungry,” Donatello noted, “I guess the children are working on some instinctual level; they wouldn't know how to forage down here...”

“There must still be something human deep down inside...” April agreed. She looked up at Donatello as he tapped his chin in thought. “Do you think that means they'll be okay when we stop all of this?”

His purple headband fluttered when he shook his head. “Don't ask me, psychic phenomena might be the *one* thing I wasn't studying up as a kid.”

“You'd think it'd all come natural to him, given what a giant nerd he is,” Raphael said, poking a sai in his direction before hopping from a pipe and moving stealthily through the tunnels. Donatello pursed his lips, but didn't reply as they continued down, deeper into the belly of the mutated beast.

_I'm so hungry... someone, help me, it hurts..._

Raphael seemed to get angrier the more he heard Aprant's pleadings. She had like a couple dozen kids at her beck and call and she was asking for *more* help? And ants were supposed to be the hard working type...

Michelangelo, meanwhile, looked back at Leonardo with a pleading look in his eye. The leader pointed at his own eyes and then moved them silently towards the inky darkness.  _Eyes up front, Mikey,_ he said silently. The youngest practically whimpered, worried far too much for the poor girl. He remembered what it was like to feel hungry, no, *starving*. He wondered if his brothers even remembered what it was like eating nothing but algae and worms...

April noticed Donatello was lagging a bit, his bo practically shaking in his hands. She tried to get his attention, but he was developing a thousand yard stare, as if he was trying to detach himself from the present. Something seemed *wrong*.

Leonardo opened his mouth, but before he could ask Raphael just how much longer it would take, the group heard the clattering of exoskeleton on metal and the wet slaps of skin against water. It was to be expected; a psychic queen would have no trouble sensing them and sending her soldiers out, regardless of how silent they were. “Everyone! Be prepared!”

The ants were strangely quiet for what they were expecting; the movies always made giant bugs out to be loud and crazy, screeching into the air as they approached. Real ants didn't have vocal chords, so they couldn't make a sound if they wanted to. The group could hear the soldiers' approach, but the echoes of the trampling feet quickly made it difficult to tell just how far away they were, and when the first soldiers appeared from the darkness, Raphael was caught up in one of their mandibles before the ninjas even saw their approach. Michelangelo let out a shout and charged forward, but the ants didn't even bother with him; they rushed Leonardo and April instead.

“Raph! Are you okay!?” Michelangelo cried as his brother let out a pained howl and stabbed his sai straight into the ant's compounded blue eye. The soldier dropped Raphael, who made sure to grab at the creature's antennae and yank. If there was one thing he knew, it was that a bug didn't need eyes to “see”.

“I'm fine, Mikey, just... JEEZ that hurt!” Thank goodness turtle shells were so durable. “Leo! Those things can crush a person in half! They have some serious pressure! Kuso yarou, come here and lemme...” Raphael let out a howl as Donatello slammed his bo into his brother's head.

“Raph! There's a *lady* present!!”

“Would you SHUT IT!?”

Once again, Leonardo was there to stop the fight, “Focus, you two! ...and stay behind us, April,” Leonardo and Donatello stepped between the woman and her ant clones. The brothers might have shells, but if any of those ants got close enough to their adopted sister, they'd probably end up with two *half* sisters.

The battle began in earnest. The ants had hard exoskeletons that were incredibly tough to break through with Michelangelo's bludgeoning weapons, and they had no brain for Raphael to pinpoint, so instead it became an unconventional slaughterhouse. The two turtles had to funnel the soldiers into the waiting blades of Leonardo's katana, Donatello's naginata, and April's tessen. An ant without a head was just a twitching mutant without mandibles, after all. ...Although it was still really weird to see the headless creatures feebly clasp their mandibles (and rarely, human teeth) together, as if still attempting to contribute to the battle.

April had gotten queasy the moment most of the bodies continued to skitter about, and despite Donatello's assurance that it was only because their nervous systems covered their entire body and that they would eventually stop when they ran out of nutrients to supply energy to their cells, it was incredibly hard not to draw parallels to zombies, especially when all of their human traits looked exactly like her.

Despite the young woman's horrified stomach, Michelangelo was the first to break, “They just don't stop! What are we going to do, Leo!?”

“Judging by the mass of dying bodies...” Donatello began.

“The rats are gunna eat well tonight,” Raphael finished, charging forward. He barely bothered to look back. “Come on! We've got places to be!”

_I'm in pain!... Someone help! Save me, I'm in danger!!_

“Oh she'll be in danger, alright!!” Raphael shouted, charging through with a scream just as he slammed his sai into another soldier that had come to join her now mutilated sisters. The others glanced at each other and followed close behind, Leonardo ordering his brother not to go too far ahead.

The tunnel was getting thinned as the body count increased, and they were pleased to note that the children were few and far between. Most of them must have gone topside, and the very few that did remain were easily tied up in a group. They seemed mindless enough that they couldn't find a way out, but once they removed Aprant from the picture... “The knots *should* be easy enough to untie if they work together...” Donatello said, wiping his hands of dirt and being genuinely pleased with his work.

“We'd better work quick, or else Aprant might stop panicking and focus on them escaping,” Leonardo said, “...Also because Raph refuses to stop charging down the way despite my *express orders not to*.”

“And *this* is why we take ten mile runs through the sewers Mikey!” Donatello proclaimed as the others followed their berserk brother into the darkness.

\---

_It hurts so much... Help me, please..._

_They're going to kill me... I don't want to die... Save me, heroes. Save me...!_

The more Aprant cried, the more Raphael growled and the faster he ran. Leonardo quickly attributed his anger to his attempts to keep Aprant out of his mind. He had been near her as long as Michelangelo had been, and the youngest turtle was practically pleading with them to at least let them lock her up. If she had gotten to their little brother in such a fashion, then Raphael must be working on his last point of willpower. “You okay there, April?”

“I'm perfectly fine,” she replied matter-of-factually, “I can hear it all, but I don't feel anything. What about you, Leo?”

“It's like my heart is fluttering,” he explained, placing a hand over his plastron where his heart was hidden, “It's aching, like... like my family was hurt...” April turned to Donatello, and he was nodding so quickly it looked like he was quivering. “I don't know how Raph can handle this, honestly.”

April looked thoughtful; she really doubted he could. “Then we need to finish this as quickly as possible.”

Aprant suddenly screamed and it quickly became apparent that Raphael had reached her. Donatello dropped against the wall of the pipe as if he was physically struck, and Michelangelo jumped forward instinctively. April looked at Leonardo, who followed after his brother, and she nearly rushed after the others. A groan from her friend stopped her, and she turned around. “Donnie...?”

“April... Are you okay?” He asked, rubbing at his eyes and taking deep, meditative breaths.

“I'm fine,” she said, again, “Donnie, what's going on...? Are *you* okay?”

“April, where are you...? I...”

Aprant screamed again; April looked up and Donatello cried out, clutching his head. “April! April, no!!”

The young girl approached her friend slowly, “Donnie, what are you talking about? I'm right here, Donnie...” and she let out a relieved sigh when he nodded, took a deep breath, and stood up to his full height. He opened his brown eyes and looked at his friend, his eyes focusing on her for a moment before he took another deep breath.

“We have to go. We have to keep moving,” he said, doing a second of “twitch-nodding” before rushing down the tunnel, leaving April alone. She knitted her brows and jogged after her brothers, listening to the screams of Aprant mixed with Michelangelo's wails.


	5. Long Live the Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raphael and Michelangelo make it to Aprant, both a little different from when they first saw her. Now that the others are here, it's up to the five heroes to-
> 
> -become assimilated. Help her. Save her. It hurts, help. Become a Fa-a-amily...

Raphael could hear the voices in his head the whole time he charged through, and every sentence made him angrier.  _I understand you.  I know you.  Help me.  I know you.  It hurts.  I understand you._

She was *wrong*.  She couldn't understand him.  She *couldn't*!  He charged around the corner and didn't even bother taking a good look at the mutant as his sai flashed...

...It was Michelangelo that stopped him with his kusarigama.  “Raph! RAPH, get off of her, man! Leave her ALONE!” Michelangelo's chain flew magnificently, and it wrapped around his brother's arm.  The orange-banded turtle yanked his berserk brother back with a snarl so Raphael couldn't get any closer to assaulting Aprant. “What did she ever do to you, dude!?”

“What did she do to *you*!?” Raphael demanded, tugging back on the chain. Michelangelo yanked on the chain and slammed a foot on it, hoping to pull his brother to the floor, but all he managed to do was drag Raphael back a foot.

It was then that Leonardo arrived on the scene. “Mikey!?” He cried incredulously, surprised that his brothers actually began coming to blows.

“Get Aprant, bro!” Raphael ordered his leader just before rushing his little brother, “I got Mikey!”

“Don't you dare, Leo, I- EEEEAAAK!” Raphael was on Michelangelo before he could process the movement, and the kusarigama chain was soon wrapped around the very wielder of the weapon. “Raph! Raph, Lemme go! Lemme *go*!”

The two struggled for a moment; Leonardo moved to help Raphael, but he would have none of it. “I dunno how much longer I can hold him, Leo (without actually hurting him)!” Raphael growled, shoving his brother against the wall of the tunnel, “You gotta do this quick!”

Leonardo nodded and drew his swords. He hesitated when he saw the horrifying Aprant, whose abdomen was now so huge she couldn't even move if she wanted to. She looked up at the leader with her bright blue eyes, and Leonardo could see April pleading with him; those eyes were exactly the same...  _ Please, don't please, save me no please. It hurts... Help me...! _ Her voice... the voice in her head even reminded him of April now...

Leonardo pointed his swords at the ant as another egg spewed from her body and lay, untended, next to so many others. “Let my brother go. *Now*.” He didn't want to kill anyone either, but her very existence was affecting them all in terrible ways. If she could just *turn it off*, perhaps they could find some way to...

_Help me. Fix me. Heal me. Save me._

...Was she affecting him!? Was this her brainwashing at work? Was she using his compassionate side to manipulate him? Or perhaps his fear was fueling Raphael's bloodlust...

“Leo!!” Raphael shouted as the leader lowered his katana a few centimeters, “ANY TIME NOW!”

Michelangelo was wailing and struggling, and Leonardo grimaced. He gave her the ultimatum, and she ignored it. He raised his swords, and...

...Donatello's voice rang out in fear. “April, NO!!!” Leonardo instinctively whirled around to find his sister, as his family's safety came first, but he was only met with a very confused and shrugging young woman. By the time Leonardo turned back around, however, Donatello was already there, standing between Aprant and his brother. “I won't let you hurt her! Don't hurt April!”

Leonardo couldn't even believe he had to say this, but... “Donnie, she's *not* April, she's an- she's a mutant ant!”

_It hurts... Save me, hero. Save me. Fix me. Help me...!_

“Leave her alone, Leo!” Donatello's bo snapped up and Leonardo dodged his head to the right, but the young genius held his arm out along the staff and let it slam against the leader's head, sending stars through his vision. “I won't let you...!” His bo trembled in his hands and his head twitched, as if he were trying, and failing, to fight Aprant's psychic cries. “I won't let you hurt April!”

Leonardo reached up to grab at Donatello's bo, but he snapped it back, twirled it twice, and jabbed it at his brother's plastron, shoving all of his force into it so it sent Leonardo back a foot. He didn't need to actually attack with it; everything was defensive.

Just what they needed, more brainwashed brothers. Aprant began to cry, and Leonardo's heart squeezed in his chest; he didn't want to fight his brothers, not like this! He had to finish this quickly, and with Donatello keeping at him a distance... If he hurt his brother...

...He just wanted...  _ Let's be together...  _ to be a family...  _ Help me...  _ Why did they have to...

“Coming through!” Leonardo could hear April's voice both in his ears and in his heart, and the woman performed an excellent jump over the turtle before executing a downward kick that would make even Raphael drool, had he been able to see it. Her foot connected with Donatello's plastron in the location where his solar plexus should be, and the two went straight to the ground. April surfed for a bit on top of Donatello as his shell slid right past Aprant and spun out for several rotations before coming to rest a few feet from the cliff. Donatello let out a shout and reached up at his attacker when he regained his bearings, but April grabbed at his chin and forced his eyes on hers. “Donnie. I'm *fine*. You're *fine*. We're *fine*. Wake up! I'm okay! Wake up!”

Donatello's hands rested on her arms, but he didn't resist. The two locked eyes as April fought to keep Aprant's influence out of her friend's mind, and instead the queen ant focused on the last enemy before her: Leonardo. He took a deep breath and drew his swords back up. “I will say this... one more time... release my brothers... let the children go. Now.”

_ We can stay here forever... _ she begged,  _ We'll protect you. Your sisters won't let Him hurt you... _ Somewhere in his mind, he could feel a crawling sensation invade his memories about the Shredder. She was making promises she really couldn't keep.  _ I just want to be a *family*. _

Leonardo glared at Aprant as she reached out longingly with four of her six hands, and the leader raised his katana.  _ My son... _ she pleaded, eyes filling with tears as she found the memory of Splinter.  _ Aishiteru. _

The twin blades sung in the air as he brought them down on Aprant's neck, and the five heard a spine chilling screech in their brain that just *wouldn't stop* ringing even as the mutant's head rolled in the sewage. Donatello screamed and Michelangelo burst into tears. Raphael shoved on his brother and lost his balance, dropping to the sewage with curses both in Japanese and English, and Leonardo dropped his swords and clutched at his head. Despite their attempts to block out the sound, it wasn't until April focused her whole mind and reached out to theirs that the four stopped being reduced to ear-bleeding balls.

_ Everyone! Calm down! Just... wait for Aprant to stop. _ All of the other mutant ants could continue to move despite their decapitations, so it was only natural that Aprant's psychic abilities wouldn't die until a minute or two after her own sentence. Thus were the turtles shielded by April's determined psychic pulses that calmed them just long enough for Aprant to finally stop moving. Leonardo managed to stay standing the whole time, but he didn't seem to be in the mood to move, even as April let out a relieved sigh and flopped next to the whimpering Donatello.

Raphael was the first to act, pulling out his sai and immediately setting to the task of tearing the eggs, larvae, and pupae apart so no more could erupt from their incubators. Michelangelo was very, very slowly dragging himself out of his own weapon, but he seemed to be uninterested in saying much of anything, for once.

Donatello, meanwhile, was shoving his knuckles into his eyelids, as if seeing white would get rid of the death scream that sounded exactly like April from replaying over and over in his mind. “April... April... April...”

She didn't mind replying by reaching out and squeezing his shoulder as her friend fought to keep from crying (Raphael wouldn't let him live it down, no matter the reason for it), “I'm here, Donnie. It's fine. We're all okay.”

“All thanks to you, April. You really came through for us,” Leonardo said softly, picking up his katana and wiping them down on his kerchief before sheathing them. He looked at Donatello, who was still shivering, and then at Raphael, who was shouting at the unborn mutants (“How do you like that, huh!?”), “Raph, Raph, we're done. It's over.”

“Like hell it is!” Raphael shouted back, tossing half of a giant larva over Donatello's head and into the raw sewage over the cliff, “If any of these things hatch... I won't let them into my head! It's my head! They'll never understand! They *can't* understand me!!” Only *one* person could understand him, and he wasn't here anymore!!

Leonardo sighed and decided that this was probably the best way to let him cope. He then turned to Michelangelo, who began wrapping up everything before looking despondently at the eldest. Leonardo moved forward and reached out to comfort his brother. “M-Mikey, I'm sorry, I know you wanted...”

Michelangelo shrugged Leonardo's hand off of his shoulder and turned back towards home. “...Don't wanna talk about it,” he muttered. Leonardo respected his brother's wishes, although his heart fell from his little brother's sadness. He turned back to the others, and he was relieved to see that April had gotten Donatello to his feet. He seemed to be able to move himself, but he clung to her arm like it was the last thing on the planet. Perhaps for this moment, it was.

Despite the fact that this was, technically, a victory, it was with a heavy heart that Leonardo nodded at his siblings. “Come on, everyone. Let's go home.”

\---

The walk home was slow; each turtle was encumbered by thoughts that plagued their minds, and April was handicapped by a giant turtle-shaped growth attached to her arm. Leonardo made sure everyone stayed on course, just in case there were some sort of aftereffects of Aprant's psychic prowess. By the time they arrived at the lair, Splinter was already prepared to meet with them, having felt the oppressive, suffocating auras surrounding them. “Okaerinasai.”

“Tadaima...” Leonardo replied softly, watching his three brothers drag themselves into the lair. Michelangelo flopped onto his plastron in the middle of the living room, and Raphael immediately settled down in his beanbag chair to rest his eyes and his mind. Donatello and April, meanwhile, sat down next to each other; the young woman looked up at Leonardo, as if asking him how to fix their brother, whose brain seemed to have shut down. Leonardo gulped and turned to his father. “We uhm... we ran into some problems in the sewer, Sensei.”

“I see that,” he replied, looking around the room at the mentally drained turtles.

“It was my fault...” Donatello suddenly said, making Leonardo let out a relieved breath that he was actually speaking. The young turtle in purple kept his eyes closed as he considered the ramifications of his actions. “It was all my fault.”

April gave him a small, understanding smile. “Donnie, it's okay, I...”

“She was in pain...” he interrupted, looking down at his thumbs as he pressed them together, his way of twiddling such giant appendages, “April's immune to the mutagen, so when the- when Aprant mutated, she wasn't able to do so completely.”

“She looked like some sort of beast,” Raphael pointed out as he stared at the ceiling. “The ant and human parts didn't come together at all.”

“I assume...” Donatello took a deep breath, “That the failed retro-mutagen was powerful enough to mutate her, but it would rebuild her cells only for April's immunity to break it down again.” The young genius sucked in another meditative breath and rubbed at his head to alleviate the splitting headache that had formed. “She was in constant pain the entire time...”

Leonardo pulled himself from the wall he had been resting on. “Was that why I felt...”

Michelangelo sat up and grabbed at his head. “She was hurting, and I couldn't stop it!”

“What were you going to do?” Raphael asked, waving his arm as if swatting away his brother's words, “Kiss the booboo better?”

Michelangelo drew his legs up and hugged them with a pout, his eyes filling with tears. “We coulda saved her...” he whispered, “Dee could have made some retro-mutagen... it woulda worked.”

Donatello didn't have the heart to point out that he wasn't sure how close he was to perfecting the retro-mutagen, especially because he already *apparently* screwed up his last batch, nor did he know what they would have done with the children during that time, so instead he just settled back and rested his eyes...

...And then opened them again with an exasperated sigh. ...He didn't think he was going to be getting much sleep with that scream hiding in his subconscious.

Leonardo looked down at his little brother, clenching his fists and using his “leader tone”. “She had you and Donnie, and I couldn't leave you behind. I'm sorry, Mikey, but...”

Michelangelo hid his face in his knees and nodded, “I know, Leo. I...I know...” No matter how much he didn't want to admit it, he understood completely.

Splinter took a moment to let the air calm down, and he looked at the downcast children. “I understand your sadness. This was your first time ending the life of a person, and I am pleased to know you are not taking it lightly.” He took a step forward, his cane tapping on the floor. The teenagers looked up at their sensei, who took a deep breath, “That said, I am also happy that Leonardo brought you home. It is selfish to put one's family over all, but it is a selfishness that we can afford to cling to.” They were, after all, the only ones they had.

Leonardo looked up at Splinter, and he took a deep breath, “I... I still don't want anything like that to happen again. I think...” he glanced at Donatello, and the genius' neck slowly disappeared as he slid down into his shell. Leonardo smiled reassuringly at his little brother, “...we should all work together so this sort of mistake never happens again.”

Donatello gave a tired nod as April massaged his shoulder. Raphael shrugged through his closed eyes, and Michelangelo raised his fist to give a thumbs up, head still buried in his knees. There was still an unhappy pall that settled over the family, but they knew, or perhaps hoped, that together they could go back to making things right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the ending! I hope you enjoyed it, it was a pleasure to write. I have a "sequel" in the works, but I don't want to start uploading it until it's finished. I am completely, utterly terrible at finishing things and 95% of the time my things are just half finished messes that I never get back to. Not this time! This time I won't load things up until they are finished!!
> 
> So look forward to other stories! I might not be as active now, but I will eventually! ...If I do finish it! ...Hah.


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